Disillusionment

Well, this is my first blog.  What prompted me to enter the Blogosphere? The numb feeling all week of a sport I love so dearly, being so entrenched in lies, corruption and suspicion.

This story goes back to 2002, when my girlfriend, now now my wife, & I were planning our trip to Europe.  She recommended watching the Tour de France highlights each night on SBS, with live stages on weekends.  Great, I thought, a sport I can share!  Our '03 trip went through Paris, Bordeaux, Carcassonne and the Cote d'Azure.  We even glimpsed Mont Vontoux!

Returning home in time for the 100th anniversary TdF, I was hooked.  It was a great spectacle, and there was this guy Armstrong, who had fought back from cancer and was aiming at his 4th successive win.  This was where it was a personal.  My mother had read Lance's book as inspiration for her own battle, but passed away a few days before Armstrong led US Postal across the line for the 4th time in Yellow.

Since then, my passion for the sport has grown, year by year, seeing Lance take seven victories, always under a cloud of doubters from French media, but adamant he was racing clean.  Riders before him were found out - Riis, Pantani, and the Festina squad.  Riders after him were also outed - Ullrich, Landis, Vinokourov & Rasmussen.  Armstrong maintained his stand in retirement: he was clean, the tests proved it.  Further scandals involving the Spanish saw glamour boys Valverde and Contador gone for extended bans.  Armstrong maintained his record was free from drugs.

Lance has battled in court to clear his name against "libelous" accusations time and again, with the courts ruling in his favour.  Throughout, I was a believer.  How could these allegations be proven to be true given the testing records Armstrong quoted in the libel suits?

At the beginning of 2012 rumours of a US investigation were brewing all over Twitter.  Some of the leading journo's in the world of cycling were starting to pay attention.  USADA were going to go ahead with another case against Armstrong.  Naturally, Lance would fight this one as well, and win - he always had.  The case was big.  USADA had already collected statements from team-mates and peers, and the whispers were that this is going to blow the sport apart if proven.

The news on August 23rd that Lance wasn't going to fight this one annoyed me.  Why now?  This was his national drug agency investigating!  If there's nothing to hide, stand up and fight for your reputation. No defence would give the USADA the right to impose sanctions after the evidence was tabled.

Australian commercial media had a field day.  Aside from Cadel Evans' efforts in the Tour de France and the 09 World Championships, cycling was only mentioned in conjunction with the words "doping scandal".  They feasted on the fact that Lance had said enough was enough.

August 24th: Deadline for Lance Armstrong to submit a dense.  This passed, and USADA hands a lifetime ban for the doping conspiracy.  More media misinterpretation.  TV networks pounce on "Lance stripped of 7 titles"

Untrue!  No evidence had been tabled.  The ASO an UCI awaited that evidence before they were going to act.

So we waited. And waited. And waited.

October 10, and the Twitterati were expecting an announcement.  Sure enough, it came though overnight (Aust time), and I woke to find my Timeline full with hundreds of tidbits on the USADA report. Two hundred and two pages, 27 appendices, current riders banned.  My gawd, how am I going to digest all this?

Truth  is, I still haven't waded through it all, and will take the time to read the full reports, but I have taken enough in to realise that this sport is in serious trouble.  Riders I have admired are now rubbed out:  Armstrong, Leipheimer, Hincapie.

As I type this, Australian's are also being revealed as RiderX and RiderY.  Matt White has stepped down from GreenEDGE for his "involvement in the strategy".  Mick Rogers has also been spoken about.

I sit here on a Sunday afternoon about to watch Cycling Central fearing that the love I have for this sport of Professional Cycling has been lost, may never return